Oblivion
by SkitzStar
Summary: Elizabeth has been brainwashed by the Replicators, and it's up to the Atlantis team to bring her back. Gen. SPOILERS.


_Author's Note:_ Written for a prompt-a-thon on LiveJournal. Reviews are loved. Check my profile for updates on fanfiction.

**Spoilers!** "The Real World," "The Return," "Tao Of Rodney," "The Game," "Adrift," "Lifeline," "Reunion," "This Mortal Coil," "Be All My Sins Remember'd," "Broken Ties"

* * *

The room was very quiet, and very dark. Teyla had to blink a few times for her vision to adjust. She wasn't really sure why there were no lights on in here. Perhaps it was the request of the room's occupant.

As her eyes fell on that occupant, relief washed over her. Elizabeth looked no different than she had when Teyla had last seen her, in the Replicator city. But then Elizabeth looked up at her, and she bit her lip at the coldness in her friend's gaze.

"Hello, Elizabeth," she said.

Elizabeth said nothing. She didn't have to; Teyla was already shivering.

"I am sorry I did not come to see you when you arrived," the Athosian continued faintly. "I was… a little nervous."

"You aren't anymore?" said Elizabeth. Her voice was so emotionless that for a moment, Teyla could believe she was more Replicator than human.

"Elizabeth, whatever the Replicators told you, it is a lie."

"They didn't tell me anything," Elizabeth retorted, standing up and approaching the bars of her cell. "I watched you leave."

Teyla frowned. "You told us to!"

"I didn't mean forever," said Elizabeth icily.

"You are here now," Teyla replied, her voice soft. She watched Elizabeth's eyes, trying to find a hint of the woman she knew. "Surely that must count for something."

"Yes, I'm here. In a dark, cold cell, with an Ancient shield preventing me from so much as leaning against the sides," said Elizabeth with dark cynicism. "And I would still have been here if I'd tried to come back from the Replicators, or even if I hadn't been captured by them in the first place."

"Elizabeth," said Teyla pleadingly, but her friend kept going.

"I'd have forgiven you for it once, but not anymore. Do you know why?"

Teyla swallowed. She thought she did.

Elizabeth didn't wait for her answer. "Because you went ahead and destroyed all the Replicators, without even bothering to think that I might be killed too. I would have been, if I hadn't by some miracle managed to escape just before that. Without your help, of course."

"We were told you were dead," Teyla whispered.

"By whom? The Replicators?" Elizabeth turned on her heel to stalk around her cell. "Of course you believed them."

"You wanted them gone as much as we did," Teyla reminded her.

"I would have preferred a little warning," Elizabeth growled. She turned to face Teyla again, coming all the way up to the bars. "Tell me, Teyla. If the people you thought were your friends abandoned you to the worst nightmare imaginable and then proceeded to almost kill you without a second thought, would you come back to them with arms wide open?"

Teyla stared into Elizabeth's eyes. There was nothing there she could recognize… nothing of her friend.

"No," she said at last. "I suppose I would be… hesitant. But I would forgive them, with time."

"You wouldn't forget," Elizabeth said quietly. "It's not easy to trust someone after all that, Teyla."

Teyla winced at the way Elizabeth said her name – almost with contempt. "Time will tell, Elizabeth. I have to believe that."

"You can believe what you want, but when I get out of this cell, I have every intention of trying to kill you," said Elizabeth. Her expression was deadly serious. "Maybe I won't succeed, but that won't matter, because I won't care."

* * *

After what Teyla said happened in the holding room with Elizabeth, Rodney almost didn't step through the door. Only the thought that he might be instrumental in getting their Elizabeth back made him go inside.

"I really don't need another pep talk," said Elizabeth, a moment after the door closed behind him. She was standing in the center of her cell, facing away from him.

"What makes you think I'm here to give you a pep talk?" Rodney asked.

"Oh, maybe the fact that you all seem to think I might actually want to talk to you," said Elizabeth acidly, turning to face him, "after what you did to me."

"Elizabeth, we haven't done anything to you," Rodney pointed out. "All we did was bring you back here. Home, to Atlantis."

"Why the hell would I want to make Atlantis my home?" Elizabeth glared at him through the bars of her cell. "Oh, that's right. It's really very beautiful inside this cell. You just have to look through the shielding and solid walls."

"You're not going to be in there forever. This is just a precaution."

"You know what's ironic?" Elizabeth was staring him down. Rodney swallowed hard. "I'm probably in here because you don't want anyone else to be infected with nanites."

Rodney blinked. "Well, yeah. Why else would you be in there?"

"I don't know, maybe because I might kill you if I got out!" Elizabeth raised her voice with the word 'kill,' her eyes burning into his.

"I don't believe that," said Rodney stoically. "I don't believe it for a minute. You don't kill people. You're not that kind of person."

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. "Maybe I am now. Who knows what might have happened after you left me to die?"

"We didn't leave you to die," Rodney said, trying to sound placating. "We wanted to find you, we really did. But then it looked like you were gone, so we had to focus on other things. And seriously, wouldn't you rather have been dead than stuck with the Replicators inside your mind forever? I thought that's what you said before all this happened."

"I think you're forgetting that I wouldn't be in this situation at all if you hadn't reactivated my nanites," said Elizabeth coldly.

Rodney hesitated. "Well – we didn't want you to die!"

"And then you almost killed me anyway! What kind of twisted logic is that?" Elizabeth spun around and stamped to the back of her cell in obvious fury. "Can't you make up your minds? Either you want me dead or you don't!"

"We don't want you dead, Elizabeth!" Rodney insisted.

"Then you ought to act like it," Elizabeth said darkly.

* * *

There was a long silence after Ronon walked into the room. Neither he nor Elizabeth said a word for at least a minute.

She was the one who spoke first, although she still wasn't looking at him. "Why are you here?"

"'Cause you need someone to point you in the right direction again," said Ronon.

Elizabeth let out an audible puff of air. "That isn't much of a reason. Who says I'm not already pointed in the right direction?"

"That's what I thought," Ronon replied, "when I got brainwashed by the Wraith."

She turned slowly to look at him, but didn't say anything, so Ronon continued.

"A little bit after you left, I met some old friends. Almost went away with them, but then we got captured by the Wraith. If I hadn't gotten my team to help, I might've been in trouble then. Turned out those friends were working for the Wraith. They weren't thinking straight, and they wanted to change me to be like them."

"You said you were brainwashed," said Elizabeth.

"I was. That was later, when I met one of those friends again and he gave me up to the Wraith," Ronon replied. "They took my life and gave it back, over and over again, until I couldn't think straight. It took a long time to get back to normal, but I did it. Till then, I wanted to kill everyone, like the Wraith told me to."

Elizabeth shook her head slowly, a small, cold smile playing at her lips. "While I appreciate the effort, that's not exactly like my situation now," she told him. "The Replicators didn't brainwash me."

"Didn't they?" Ronon stared into her eyes, willing her to listen. "They almost did it the first time, when you got those nanites."

"I don't like to be reminded of that," said Elizabeth, her voice suddenly chilly. She stepped away from him and turned around to face the other side of her cell.

"So you're telling me they didn't do anything with your mind. The only reason you want to kill us now is because you think it's payback for what we did to you," Ronon said quietly.

"The point isn't to kill you," said Elizabeth stonily. "It's to try. You tried to kill me, and it didn't work out, so I'm not concerned with the results."

"Elizabeth." Ronon leaned closer to the bars of the cell, but she didn't look back at him. "I know it hurts, but you have to know we did our best. It's not like we didn't search for you. We'd still have killed the Replicators, but the point was to set you free and save the rest of the galaxy."

Elizabeth gave out another audible breath. "The Replicators only had it in for Atlantis."

"Until we fixed them to go after the Wraith, and they decided to kill the food source," Ronon pointed out. "Or didn't you hear about that?"

Elizabeth held very still and silent. Ronon sensed he'd gotten across to her, at least a little.

* * *

When John entered the holding room, Elizabeth was sitting cross-legged in the middle of her cell, staring down at her hands. Teyla had warned him that she would be cold and angry, but at the moment, he thought she just looked perplexed.

"Hey," he said, sitting down next to the cell to be on a level with her.

She glanced up at him, but said nothing, and looked away almost immediately. John was unfazed.

"Listen, Elizabeth, I know you're having a hard time with all this, but I think you're being a little pessimistic," he told her.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she muttered, sounding hostile.

"You keep talking about all the bad things, like being left behind and not found until now," said John. "You're forgetting all the reasons you might want to be back in Atlantis." When she said nothing, he went on, "Remember the time Rodney and I played that game that turned out to be real? You have to admit that was kind of funny, even if it almost didn't work out."

"I distinctly recall being very angry with you," said Elizabeth in a low voice.

"Oh, you were, but that's not the point. Remember the time Rodney almost Ascended? All the things he started doing, like having whole conversations for us when he read our minds?"

Elizabeth nodded slowly. He could see that her eyes were on him now. "I remember. He wrote a book for me."

"And how about the time Atlantis got taken over by the Ancients and then the Replicators? You were pretty upset about leaving," John reminded her. "Rodney told me you pretended to like World of Warcraft to distract Dr. Lee. That must have been funny."

"I had no idea what I was talking about," said Elizabeth, and John thought he detected a wry note in her voice this time. "If I hadn't started flirting with him, he would have seen right through it."

"The rest of that mission was pretty neat too. A complete success, as I recall." John raised an eyebrow at her. "And I know you were happy about being back."

Elizabeth almost smiled, but the expression disappeared a second later. "That was before you left me for dead with the Replicators. I don't remember being very happy about that. Of course, you almost killed me, so I can't think of any reason I should have been."

"Maybe," said John softly, "but it was after you almost got taken over by nanites the first time. Would you have preferred to stay stuck with the Replicators for the rest of eternity?"

"I doubt it would have been eternity," Elizabeth countered.

"Maybe death just looks less appealing now that the alternative isn't like a horror movie," John continued, prying, hoping she would start to see reason. "Does that sound about right?"

"Death doesn't look appealing in any situation."

"How many times did they kill you in your mind?" John pressed. "How many times did they make you kill us? I guess they probably made it pretty horrific."

Elizabeth scrambled to her feet and glared at him. "You're trying to manipulate me."

John stood as well. "The Replicators manipulated you, Elizabeth. I'm just trying to find the real you. You know, the one who protested against the military. The one who tries to find a diplomatic solution to her problems whenever she can. The one who's never killed anyone."

Elizabeth opened and closed her mouth several times, looking stunned. John suspected he'd hit on something big. Maybe she thought she'd killed for real.

* * *

Richard was pretty nervous as he went into the holding room, but Sheppard had assured him that Dr. Weir was coming around, so go in he did.

"Mr. Woolsey," she said in a flat voice as he turned to watch the door close. "I heard you were in charge now."

"Yes, I am. It's not so bad," he replied, taking a moment to compose himself before looking up at her. To his relief, she didn't look nearly as cold as he'd expected from Teyla's description. In fact, she just looked bored. "I was a little wary at first, but I've come around."

"What do you intend to do with me, assuming I ever get released from this holding room?" Weir asked, glancing around her with disinterest.

"Well, the IOA has been talking about having a permanent representative in Atlantis, someone who isn't actually in charge of the city, so that they can come back whenever they're needed. I was hoping to apply for that job once you get reinstated."

Weir stared at him for a moment. Richard realized he had answered her question somewhat indirectly. "Reinstated?" she repeated finally, her voice soft.

"After everything that's happened with Colonel Carter and now me, I think the IOA is starting to feel a little nostalgic," Richard explained. "I have no doubt they'll be willing to bring you back once Dr. Keller confirms that you aren't a Replicator."

"I'm not sure I understand," said Weir, taking a few steps closer to him. "I've been here for days and all I've done is threaten to kill you all."

"And as I understand it, that is no longer your intention," said Richard. "Or were you just playing Colonel Sheppard?"

"Well, no, I…" Elizabeth turned away for a moment. When she looked back at him, she looked more composed, though still somewhat conflicted. "No. I've never killed anyone in the past. I don't intend to start now."

"Good. As much as I like it here, it can get very stressful being in charge," Richard said wryly. "You handled it much better than I ever could."

"I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I'm not sure the IOA will sign off on it, whatever you say."

Richard cleared his throat. "I'll let you argue your case with them if necessary. But in the meantime, I think Dr. Keller should check up on you now that I know you won't slit her throat with a scalpel."

Weir winced. "I would never have done something like that."

"I'm sorry. Dr. McKay was letting his imagination run away with him."

* * *

"I hear you wanted to kill everyone," said Dr. Keller.

Elizabeth pressed her hands against her eyes. "Does everyone have to keep bringing that up?" she said irritably.

Keller put a hand on her shoulder. "Relax. I'm just teasing."

"It's kind of a sensitive issue right now."

"I'm sorry. Sit down, please." Keller walked around to the other side of the gurney as Elizabeth perched on the edge of it. "This won't take long. There's no point scanning you for nanites, since we know you've got them already."

"How can you be sure they won't infect anyone else?" Elizabeth asked.

"Rodney and I worked on this together when we reactivated them. He assured me many times that it wouldn't be dangerous," Keller explained.

"Then why was I quarantined after it happened?" said Elizabeth.

Keller sighed. "It was just a precaution. Like this checkup is a precaution. We already know you're okay, we just have to take a few steps to be absolutely sure."

"Am I going to be required to take a psychological exam?" Elizabeth rubbed her eyes again. When had she last slept? She couldn't even remember.

"Probably, for the IOA's benefit more than anything else. No big deal. I'm sure you'll check out." Keller smiled at her.

Elizabeth was silent for a while as she let the doctor do her tests, but she finally felt the need to speak up again. "I'm sorry I caused everyone so much trouble. I didn't realize how much the Replicators had invaded my mind."

"Well, if they didn't come up with things that felt real, it wouldn't be very effective, would it?" said Keller gently. "It could've happened to anyone. You just had the bad luck to get stuck with it."

"Maybe it's better this way," Elizabeth mused. "I was thinking about resigning when the Replicators attacked. If I hadn't been injured, I might have left Atlantis for good."

"Considering how you reacted the first time that happened, I'm not sure that would have been a wise decision," Keller remarked.

"Who told you about that?"

"Rodney." Keller gave a mysterious smile and patted her arm. "You're all set."

Elizabeth slid off the gurney. "You mean I can leave this awful room?"

"I would recommend it. You could go mad in here if you were stuck long enough." Keller glanced around the room.

"Thank you, doctor." Elizabeth walked out through the open door, blinking when she found herself suddenly in the bright light of day. It was almost blinding after so much time in the dark.

"Do you need anything else, Dr. Weir?" Keller asked, behind her.

"Where's Teyla? I want to apologize," said Elizabeth.

* * *

Teyla was in her quarters, staring out the window at the ocean, when she heard the chimes that meant someone was at her door. She wasn't expecting to see Elizabeth when she opened it.

"Hi," said her friend, biting her lip. "Can I come in?"

"Of course." Teyla stepped back, unable to resist a smile. Miraculously, Elizabeth had returned from the mental oblivion of the Replicators. "We need to catch up, do we not?"


End file.
